Climate and Sustainability| Seeking Visibility in a Big Tent: Digital Communication and the People’s Climate March

Abstract

The September 2014 “People’s Climate March” was reportedly the largest climate change mobilization in history. The coalition of organizations behind the march chose a strategy of inclusion: They sought to create a “big tent” for a climate movement. Building on theoretical developments in the literature on digital media and social movements, we used Twitter as a window to observe how march organizers and participants attempted to (a) create a digital space of shared attention intersecting with the on-the-ground event, and also (b) thread together diverse orientations to the climate issue.